


Hurt (Fallout 4)

by Khaleesi_of_Assassins



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-04-18 08:32:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14209239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khaleesi_of_Assassins/pseuds/Khaleesi_of_Assassins
Summary: Talya Aristova always wanted an exciting life; something more than the everyday shambles of the people around her. She'll get more than she bargained for when the Great War comes and tears her family apart. She has to become a survivor she never thought she would need to be, and learns one of the longer, more painful lessons of the Commonwealth; survival will hurt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> These will be short stories about my Sole Survivor and her life after the Vault. I won't have them in any particular order, but I am starting pretty much where the game starts off.

“The cold is in your blood, and that is why it will never defeat you.”

Talya had been six when her mother spoke those words, so long ago. It was during a winter that now seemed like little more than a dream. The two of them had been caught on the road in the middle of a storm, one that had buried their car and all the others who had gotten stuck that night.

“Papa won’t be able to find us.” Talya still remembered how afraid she had been. Afraid of freezing to death or that the snow would suffocate them. 

More than that, she remembered the calm look in her mother’s eyes. Her mother had given her than look before, the look of strong determination that always let Talya know the world wasn’t collapsing around her. 

“Talya, you shouldn’t be afraid. This snow is nothing compared to what I’ve seen.” She said, her once strong accent faded.

Talya had never seen the homeland her mother spoke of. She was too young to think of it as anything beyond the harsh and frozen wasteland her classmates had described. Too young to understand - beyond speculating it was her hair color - why people sometimes called her “Red”. Her father understood though. He would always get angry whenever Talya mentioned someone calling her a Red, demanding to know who had been giving her trouble.

He had always been very protective, an unbreakable wall between Talya and any harm. Her mother was protective too, in a different way. 

She was very smart and knew better than anyone how to comfort Talya when she was afraid. She did this by making Talya feel strong. “Talya don’t be afraid. The cold is in your blood, and that is why it will never defeat you.”

The words repeated over and over in Talya’s mind as she stumbled to the floor of the Vault, her whole body shaking and weak. Still, she scrambled to her feet, shivering as she looked through the frozen glass in front of her. She pulled frantically on the door, though it didn't budge. “Come on, come on!”

She turned to the control panel, smashing buttons before the pod door let out a hiss of air and slid open. 

Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes as Talya looked at the body frozen inside. His face was committed to her memory, as was the feeling of his touch, his warmth, his lips on hers. She would never feel any of those things again. 

Sobs wracked her body and she leaned against the pod for support, feeling as though a bullet had ripped through her chest as well. 

Then she remembered the scared face of a man with the gun, and her grip on the cryo pod strengthened until her knuckles turned white. Her voice sounded like it might break when she spoke. “I’ll find whoever did this, and I’ll get Shaun back,” she looked up at his face once more, “I promise.”


	2. Gage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Minutemen invade Nuka World, Gage takes some time to reflect.

He should have known. He should have fucking known.

        Gage fired off another round, the spray of bullets hitting a Minuteman that had been stupid enough to run through the open door that lead to the Overboss’ room. Then again, he supposed he couldn’t really call the poor bastard stupid. He had been stupid enough to create this mess, after all.

        He wanted to think it wasn’t her, that the assholes burning through the place weren’t here on her orders, but there wasn’t any point in denying it. Not when every part of the attack screamed Talya.

        It had started when the sun went down.

        He had just been ready to go to sleep when an explosion shook the Galactic Zone. He could hear the Pack howling over gunfire and reports came over the radio that robots were coming back online. Then the radiation sprayers that the psycho in Kiddie Kingdom used turned back on. Automated defense systems were activated, wiping out the gang members in the different parks.

        Gage knew that she had more than the ability to do that.

        She had been typing away on one of the terminals when he woke up one morning, he remembered. They had just cleared Galactic Zone the night before, both bruised and bloody so they’d camped there.

        “Trying to get the display case open,” she’d assured him when he asked what she was doing. It contained a suit of Power Armor, enough reason for him not to question her further. Or maybe it was that determined look in her eyes, or the way she looked bent over to type at the terminal.

        Gage almost wanted to throw himself off Fizztop Mountain.

        He should have known.

        He’d known who she was going in - General of the Minutemen, Railroad agent, all that jazz - so he thought he would know how to handle her, how to work her like he had Colter.

        Then he saw her take on the Gauntlet, he watched her take what she wanted as Overboss and not give two shits about what the gang leaders thought of her. She worked a gun like she was born with one in her hand, like she had some kind of magic. She had that magic with locks, terminals, even people. It wasn’t any wonder she’d survived in the Commonwealth so long.

        It was some small wonder that Gage found himself getting lost in her curves when he tried to fall asleep, though. Gage had been with women before but he never wanted anyone like he wanted her.

        He had wanted to pin her beneath him, to hear her moan his name, to see what else she could do with that silver tongue of hers. He had gotten caught up in watching her fight, in her laugh, in the way she moved. More than that, he wanted to wake up to see the sun setting her red hair on fire, he wanted to patch her up when she was bleeding, he wanted to know what she felt like in his arms.

        Gage’s grip on his gun tightened. He had played right into her hands.

        The sun was rising and he could see Nuka World burning from his spot. There were squads of Minutemen spreading through the park, taking down Operators, Disciples, the Pack with an efficiency he almost admired. Her kind of efficiency.

        It was like she had burned her signature over the whole park.

        “Gage,” he had turned and pointed his gun at her so quickly he didn’t even register that he had moved.

        There she stood, sniper rifle slung over her back and her red hair hanging long and loose around her shoulders. He hadn’t even heard her come in, not that it surprised him. There weren’t many people who could move as quietly as she could.

        “Gage I don’t want to fight you.” The look in her eyes and the fact that her weapons were all holstered only confirmed that. Still, Gage didn’t lower his gun.

        “Fuck off.” It was all he could manage through the anger, though some part of him knew it was his fault. His own goddamned fault for not seeing what she really was.

        She looked almost hurt, like he’d just punched her in the gut. Movement behind her made Gage turn his focus, seeing a man in a suit of Power Armor readying his own gun behind her. She risked a glance over her shoulder at him, and the man lowered his weapon slightly. It was his eyes softening at her look that gave away who he was to Gage, though.

        The pretty-boy asshole she wanted. He might have hated him for that if he didn’t want to kill her so badly at present.

        God, he wanted to squeeze the trigger. He wanted to put a bullet or ten in her brain and throw her corpse down the mountain for the Disciples to play with. But he didn’t. He couldn’t because for a minute there, Talya Aristova had been someone he would have followed to hell and back.

        He didn’t know why they weren’t sending each other there now.

        “Please,” it was a word he hadn't heard her use before. It sounded so foreign on her lips, that look in her green eyes almost enough to make him lower his gun. “It's over, Gage. Don't do this.”

        He thought about it. He hated that he did, but he thought about it. Maybe she’d bring him back to the Commonwealth with her, and he’d make her forget about that Power Armored-prick and they could raze all kinds of hell. He could teach her kid how to use a gun. Maybe he could make her love him like he thought he loved her.

        But then, he'd never been one to believe in “maybes”. “You knew how this was gonna end,” he grimaced, knowing what would come next.

        But it didn’t really matter, did it? Everything he built here was gone, or would be by the time Talya was done with it. The slaves that the Raiders had taken would be calling her a hero, and they would burn the bodies of Disciples, Operators and the Pack until there was no trace of any of them left.

        No trace of him left. Of any of them.

        But he could take her down with him.

        “Gage,” her warning wasn’t as intimidating as she wanted it to be. Like she didn’t want to kill him. Like this was all just some big prank that got out of hand.

        Well, fuck her. “Just shoot straight.” He said, his signature on a contract that ended with him dead. Her eyes flashed, like he’d just punched her. Good, he wanted to think, that’s only a tiny piece of the hurt she deserves. But then, her brows furrowed and that hurt look was gone.

        It wasn’t like in the stories he’d heard. Time didn’t slow down for Gage when he raised his gun, he didn’t see all of his life story flash before his eyes. He just barely had time to register the sound of a gunshot, or the feeling of gone that came from his chest.

        Then he saw the green of her eyes, the first thing he’d noticed about her when they met face to face. Her pistol was smoking like it had been that day when she killed Colter, dried blood flecking her skin and that cold focus in her eyes. She might have looked like a hero, if he didn’t know any better. But he knew what she was, and he guessed that she probably did too.

        He grinned at that, even as he felt himself slipping away, realising that he hadn’t even managed to pull the trigger.

        He managed a little laugh.


End file.
